The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1887-08-18
cHICKAMAUGA
A COrrads Replies to Gen. WiIey's Criticisms OF
Gen. Thomas.

gen. Thomas.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Gen. Wiley.
in his article ON Chckamauga. containing adj
verse criticisms, labors to impress on the minds
of The NATIONAL TRIBUNE readers the fact
of Thomas's left being " in ali" the morning of
the Goth. Gen. Thomas should not be held ac-
countable Cor this. 1t is fact well known
that Brannan's Division was on the left of
ThOmass when the battle opened, the morning
of the 18th, and was the left division of in
fantry until Bragg's right was thoroughly re-
pulsed. Sometime during the afternoon Brau-
mans troops were hurried to Thomass right,
and there assisted in driving back force of
Confederates which had broken the center of
our army, and had nearly, If not quite reached
the main road to RosSville. Had Gen. Wiley
been near that scene-I presume he was
surely he began to feel respect for Bragg's
fighters. Brannan did not return to his old
position on the left.
In forming the new line that evening, or
during the night, Thomas's five divisions were
from left to right-Baird, Johnson, Palmer,
Reynolds and Brannan. Thomas asked for
Negley's Division to fill the place vacated by
Brannan on the extreme left. The delay in
transferring Negley's Division, which was
promised him, caused ThOmas's left to be I" in
air." as Gen. Wiley terms it. As to Thomas's
using the reserve brigades of Palmer and
johnson, he was expecting Negley up to the
time OF the attack, but only one brigade of that
division reached the left in time to aid in re-
pulsng the rebels on that flank. / am not pre-
pared to dispute Gen. Wiley's statement that
I" it was left to the Judgment of each division
commander what the formation of his troops
should be-" Perhaps this is true yet it was
remarkable that, in the absence of orders from
Thomas four Of the five division commanders
should at once adopt the same unnecessarily
strong" formation of their troops
a.
Capt. Tannyhill, of the Goth Ohio, and Capt
Blyston, of the 125th Ohio, visited the Chicka-
manga battlefield and tarried an hour with Mr..
Suodgrass, who lived in the same old cabin
that stood on the ridge. Sept. 20, 1865. Both
these officers were in Harkers Brigade, of
Woods Division. Blyston was in Opdyeke's
regiment that Wiley eO-Operated with on the
last evening of the battle. when "the enemy
kept up lively fusilade up the face of the
ridge, but it hurt nobody" except :" when our
troops moved to the crest to deliver their fire."
BlystOn carries the marks of rebel lead which
he received there.
As we told the story of Woods and Brannan's
gallant fight, and of the dead and wounded
who had gone down on that ridge Just Is years
before. we really believed them as facts; but if
we take Gen. Wiley's account "a fair average
Of the days fighting along the entire line, we
were simply mistaken. Perhaps the climate
affected our trio of veterans, and We too he
came endowed with that exuberant tropical
imagination that affected Gen. Johnson and
a host of the survivors of the Army of the
Cumberland. History will not credit Gem
George II. Thomas with more than belongs to
him. and cannot imagine why one of bis sub
ordinstes, who staid on the line with the Is
brigsdes under Thomas, that took all the fight
out of half OF the Confederacy in one after
noon, should now seek to take one iota from
the name be so nobly won" the Rock of
Chickamauga."-S. A. MCNEIL. 31ss Ohio,
Redwood, o.